How International men’s day 2016 coincided with interesting developments

What is it really about?

Trending on twitter for a few hours on twitter was the only thing International Men’s Day could manage in Pakistan. It was not mentioned in the media, save for a blog and a single TV report.

The trend of being ignored is somewhat global, with people often complaining that the International Men’s day gets less attention than women’s day.

But people in Pakistan expresses their views against the day very strongly, maybe because Pakistan is ranked 147th out of 188 in the global gender inequality index.

A Pakistani feminist on men’s day

Dr. Farzana Bari heads the Centre for Excellence in Gender Studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. A keen and vocal supporter of women’s rights, Dr. Bari has a very clear view on the whole International Men’s Day affair.

“This is simply retaliation, no men are being discriminated against in Pakistan”

She added that the lack of any active body pursuing men’s rights is the reason International Men’s Day is celebrated in Pakistan, dismissing the whole thing in the end as a “Non-Issue”.

Development: Men’s Rights on the horizon in Pakistan

Just a few days before International Men’s Day 2016, Sahibzada Zahid Mehmood Qasmi a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology came up with something new. In a letter to the chairman of the council, Qasmi asked for a men’s rights bill to be passed. He said:

“There are crimes against men too, mostly by their wives”

Although his letter was not inspired by International Mens Day, he does not see anything wrong with it.

“If women have a day of their own, why not men too”

So, what is it all about?

The complaints about men’s day are understandable, probably because male domination is so obvious all over the world.

From 9gag.com

But it is actually about how masculinity might actually be hurting the males all over the world. The theme for this year’s International Mens Day was suicide, as more men kill themselves all over the world.

However, while the debate on whether International Mens day needs to be celebrated or not continues. Humor might be the way forward.